Good Company
by wee-me
Summary: He shows up on her couch one day, out of the blue, and makes himself at home.


**Good Company**

Authoress: Wee-Me

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own "Beetlejuice" or any associated characters, so no suing (I hate paperwork and I'm broke).

Begin

He shows up on her couch one day, out of the blue, and makes himself at home.

"Just pretend I'm not here," he advises her.

Since he's stretched out on her couch with his boots smudging her coffee table, and blocking her from leaving the room, it isn't all that reasonable or possible.

"Yeah, not going to happen. How about I call Juno instead?" Thankfully her racing heart isn't given away in her voice. She can't believe he's shown up after all this time.

"Nah, I think Juno's busy enough. How about I watch the game and you not freak out?" And he actually takes the remote and starts flipping channels, like he's her boyfriend or guy friend and she's totally cool with him channel surfing on her couch. It almost makes her eye twitch.

"Why are you here?"

He sighs and mutes the TV, but doesn't turn toward her. "I would be watching the game, but someone keeps talking." He does look over when she growls at that. The beginnings of a smirk crinkle around his eyes. "Just came to check on you, no harm, no foul. I wasn't expecting to find you out of the old place. I've been to three different houses."

She can only imagine how many people he'd startled along that little trip. "You'd better not have bothered Barbara and Adam." There's steel in her voice, she's not going to bend on this subject.

He does a passable Scout pledge, like some degenerate troop leader. "Didn't harm a hair on their heads, or anywhere else. I just went through, didn't find you, and moved on. So why weren't you there?"

She crosses her arms over her chest and scoffs. "People *are* allowed to move you know. I don't have to live in the same place forever just so you can find me."

"But it would make my life so much easier," he mock whines at her. He counts the twitch at the corner of her mouth as a point in his favor. "Seriously babe, I just wanted to check on you. No ulterior motive or anything. I'm out on someone else's dime so I won't even bring up the you know what that we didn't finish or my ring you still have or the flowers I still have or the fact that..."

She cuts him off. "For not bringing it up you sure are talking a lot."

"I'll be straight with you. I'm tired, I just want a place to stop over for the day and then I'll go on. You can just pretend I'm not here, okay? I'll even say that word if you want."

"You mean please?"

"Not what I was gonna go with, but yeah, sure, please." The glint in his eyes tells her she doesn't want to know what word he was going to use.

"I am going to call Juno." She holds her hand up to stop his sputtering. "But only to check in with her and make sure she won't kill me for letting you stay a few hours. I'll only ask her to come harass you if you try any of your tricks or if you won't leave, okay?"

"Sounds like a deal. Wanna seal it with a kiss?" He wiggles his eyebrows at her.

"In your dreams. Now get your feet off my table, I have a phone call to make."

So after she calls Juno, and gets transferred to three different departments before getting to talk to the woman, and after Juno questions her sanity, she gets to spend her afternoon hiding in her kitchen. Instead of curling up in her favorite chair to read a good book she sits at her kitchen table to do some work and be paranoid about having him in her house. Well, when she isn't reminding him to turn the stupid TV down or get his feet off her table. So there's that.

She's still reading over her latest grant proposal hours later when he shuts off the set and ambles in behind her. He can be surprisingly stealthy for such a loud mouth and she's caught up in rewording things so it sounds less like "give me money you jerks" so she doesn't hear him. She wouldn't notice him at all except he starts rubbing her shoulders.

His grip is the only thing that keeps her from pitching herself into the floor when she flails.

"Okay there Lyds?"

"Betelg-" she starts to snarl before he can slide a hand over her mouth.

"Hey now, no need to get nasty. I didn't even mean to scare you that time." He keeps his hand there until her shoulders ease away from her ears. For once he really hadn't meant to get a scare from someone and look what happened. Kinda funny, actually.

"So your game is over then?" she asks, trying not to embarrass herself with further freak outs. Even if he is still touching her and behind her where she can't see what he's doing. She focuses on her papers and the scent of ozone floating around the room. Either it's him or they're in for one heck of a storm.

"Game? Oh right. I don't think I even watched a game. Unless sports involve more stabbing now than the last time I checked."

"Stabbing?"

"Yeah. It was about Jack the Ripper I think, or maybe someone acting like him. It was hard to follow since I didn't really care and all."

She turns to stare at him. "O-kay, so you spent the past, what, three hours watching stuff you didn't care about. Why exactly would you do that?"

He shrugged. "Told you, wanted a break and wanted to be where you are. Watching TV seemed like the best way to do both. I just forgot to factor in how stupid everything on there is."

She has questions after that, but she's not sure she wants to know the answers so she lets them go. "And now?"

He looks at her in confusion. "What about now?"

"What are you going to do now?"

The smart thing would be to leave, maybe that's what she's suggesting, but she doesn't look it. Instead she's just staring at him like they're friends and she asked him about his plans for the weekend. It's weird in a good way. "Thought I might order you some food, you know, for letting me stay. As a thank you or somethin'." He was making an effort, that had to count for something.

And it did, if her shy smile was anything to go by. "That would be nice. Did you have anything in particular in mind?"

They settle for Chinese at the kitchen table, after she's scooped all her papers up and put them away. He actually paid for dinner and everything, so he's counting it as a date. She doesn't even slap him when he tells her that he is, so it definitely counts.

He doesn't get an answer for why she's so far from home, but he doesn't get thrown out either. She laughs at some of his pranks and he's impressed by her work, she's a social worker- has to be at least a little bit Juno's influence- and helps run a program for needy kids. It's nice. He shows himself out after he steals a, reasonably, chaste kiss.

The next time he doesn't even have to argue his way into staying.

End

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thanks for reading.


End file.
